Sweet candied brown sugar bacon tops a savory and salty broiled parmesan cheese toast – these are good enough to be called the Best Appetizer Ever!

Parmesan Cheese Toast with Brown Sugar Bacon is quite a long name for a recipe…I should have just called it The Best Appetizer Ever. Because honestly – this really is the BEST appetizer ever. I mean first of all – brown sugar bacon, aka candied bacon, aka sugared bacon – that alone could be considered one of the best appetizers ever. Sweet and salty and crispy – I could eat an entire plate full of just that! But what makes this THE best is the parmesan cheese toast points. The combo of the nutty salty parmesan broiled on the toast and then topped with the bacon is nothing short of life-changing. Seriously.

Growing up, this appetizer was always served at family parties at our country club. Any get together HAD to include this hors d’oeuvres. And they were always the first to go. In fact at our wedding, we ordered double the amount of these because we knew that everyone would go crazy for them. And yet even after having these for years, I had never actually tried to make them myself. Well…now I know how to make them, and, I know how easy it is to make them – this is going to be dangerous. My brother has already requested that I make a giant platter for Christmas Eve!

To all my NYC area friends – what are you doing on Wednesday, November 4th, 2015 at 6PM? How about spending the evening with Chef Marcus Samuelsson?! Macy’s Culinary Council is hosting a FREE event at Macy’s Herald Square with the one and only Marcus Samuelsson! Chef Samuelsson will walk us through a dinner, serving delicious samples along the way. And best of all, he will sign copies of his cookbook Marcus Off Duty. Plus did I mention that it is free?!
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My go-to recipe for classic granola is full of nuts and coconut, and has a little less sugar than typical granola – making it the perfect healthy breakfast!

I don’t know about you, but I definitely get in breakfast routines. I will eat the same thing every weekday morning for weeks or even months at a time. The past few weeks it has been a mini bagel with cream cheese and fresh berries, but for pretty much all of June and July it was exactly what is pictured here – fresh fruit (preferably a ripe peach with some berries) with Greek yogurt and my classic granola. I go through this breakfast phase pretty much every summer – the second it starts to get warm, I just crave a granola parfait. And I love making it with homemade granola – I think it is so much better than store bought!
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You won’t believe the smooth and creamy texture in this Dairy Free Toasted Coconut Ice Cream! You won’t miss the dairy at all!

With summer coming quickly to an end, some other bloggers and I decided that we needed to celebrate all things ice cream – so we declared this week to be ice cream week!! Although, every week in the summer is ice cream week to me…I think you know by now my love for ice cream! However what is different about this Ice Cream Week is that I want to give you an awesome ice cream making package, worth over $265! Scroll to the bottom and enter to win!

I made something a little different for this blog of mine – a Dairy Free Toasted Coconut Ice Cream. It is smooth and rich and creamy, and contains absolutely no dairy!
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Ricotta Tomato Toast is a simple but delicious appetizer that is absolutely perfect for summer entertaining!

One of my favorite parts of traveling is the inspiration that it gives me in the kitchen once I’m back home. I love recreating dishes that we tried on our trips, or putting my own unique spin on things. Our recent trip to Italy inspired this delicious Ricotta Tomato Toast. We had an amazing bruschetta in Portofino and I couldn’t wait to make my own version. A tomato toast is the perfect summer party appetizer. I think summer appetizers should be easy to prepare – but still beautiful and delicious. This ricotta tomato toast checks all the boxes. And it pairs perfectly with a wine from The Seeker – because you can’t have summer entertaining without a nice glass of wine!